For their senior capstone project, 11 students in NR206: Environmental Problem Solving & Impact Assessment created a new Shoreline Management Guide in partnership with the City of Burlington.

The guide helps residents (and City employees) consider how small-scale changes in management practices along the shores of Lake Champlain and the Winooski River can affect the local and regional environment more broadly. It offers a range of infrastructure improvements and management practices — organized by shoreline type — designed to reduce erosion and stormwater runoff, create habitat, and filter pollutants.

As noted by the student authors: "This project was created...to fill the gap in shoreline best management policies at a municipal scale. As a Senior capstone project for the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resource, this work represents the cumulative effort of 11 students with a diverse range of interests, specialties, and passions. It is our intention that this shoreline management guide serves as an educational and inspirational starting point for the citizens of Burlington and city employees to begin considering how individual action can influence entire ecosystems.

The final product was more than just a graded assignment: it now lives at the top of the Burlington's Zoning Help Guides page. The City plans to continue updating the guide in order to provide residents with additional ideas and recommendations.

The guide was created by: Mackenzie Bolas, Sam Gerteis, Lucas Hiltz, Anna Hulse, Leah Kelleher, Frances Kelley, Amanda Keyes, Derek Marquis, Michael Setzke, Haley Sommer, and Luke Zarzecki, overseen by Prof. Dave Kestenbaum.